Electronics Made Simple

这个项目应用人工智能技术来实现智能服务员或导游的概念，他们的行为（甚至个性）可以取决于学习者的属性。该项目通过开发一个SIMPLE（一套多房间）来实现这一目标，以配合电气工程学生的第一门电子课程。SIMPLE强调为学生提供快速和充分的反馈，以了解他们在电子分析和解决问题方面的表现，包括简单的练习和开放式的设计问题。在没有教师直接参与的情况下，学习者在复杂的开放式问题上获得即时反馈，以及学习独立自我评估工作的好处。目标是让学习者沉浸在与他们希望学习的主题相关的强烈互动的计算机模拟环境中。在模拟中，学习者看到一组相互连接的“房间”，其中可能包含讲师喜欢的信息笔记和解释（带有图形）、项目作业和工具（文字处理器、电子表格、文本编辑器和MathCAD和PSpice等专业软件）。通过参观复杂的房间，学习者获得知识，完成任务，并通过与模拟环境的互动展示能力。这项工作的一个关键部分是宣传SIMPLE，并为Plus/HyperCard环境提供几个典型房间的相对完善的版本（在软盘上和在INTERNET上），以便他们可以为本课程和其他课程开发额外的材料。

This project applies artificial intelligence techniques to implement the concept of intelligent attendants or guides whose behavior (even personality) can be made to depend upon the attributes of the learner. The project accomplishes this by developing a SIMPLE (a set of many rooms) to accompany the first electronics course for students of electrical engineering. The SIMPLE emphasizes providing quick and ample feedback to students about their performance on the analytical and problem-solving aspects of electronics, including both simple exercises and open-ended design problems. The learner gets immediate feedback, as well as the benefits of learning independent self-assessment of work, on complex open-ended problems without direct participation by the instructor. The goal is to immerse learners in an intensely interactive computer simulated environment related to the subject matter they wish to learn. In the simulation, the learner sees a collection of connected "rooms" that may contain, at the pleasure of the instructor, informative notes and explanations (with graphics), project assignments, and tools (word processor, spreadsheet, text editor, and specialty software such as MathCAD and PSpice). By touring the complex of rooms, the learner acquires knowledge, accomplishes tasks, and demonstrates competence by interacting with the simulated environment. A key part of the effort is to publicize the SIMPLE and to provide relatively polished versions of several archetypical rooms (on floppy disks and over INTERNET) for the Plus/HyperCard environment to other faculty so that they can develop additional material for this and other courses.